It was only 5 days ago that I wrote about Prius drivers. I got some comments in response both off and online. Basically while some people admit that the Prius drivers were somewhat oblivious others bashed me for being subjective and having I quote a “confirmation bias”. So today I got more confirmation without a bias - I was attacked by a clueless Prius.

The Eastbound traffic on the 10 freeway was a standstill even after 7 o’clock in the evening. I was cautiously splitting lanes going at 20-30 mph. I saw a small opening on the lane right off me. And then the next moment a grey Prius literally jumped into this opening from the second lane over to my right and … kept going left basically sticking its nose out to the “in between lanes space” where I was. Being a cautious rider I always keep my right hand on the front brake lever for cases like that. And that basically saved me. I abruptly stopped a couple of inches away from the Prius’ front left fender.

Few questions came to mind:

• why do you want to stick the front of your car outside your lane being almost perpendicular to the direction of traffic while in a standstill traffic?
• why do you jump not one lane but almost two lanes with a cheetah-like agility or rather with a elephant-like awareness of your surroundings while in a standstill traffic?
• should I punch a hole through the guys window?

I could answer only to the last question. I slowly rode away. He had to deal with sitting in traffic while I was on the move. In my mind that would be his punishment. And 15 minutes later after I completely beat the traffic and I was at home safe and sound writing this post.

Looking back I was trying to assess if I did the right thing by braking instead of accelerating and trying to get out of the predicament rather than stopping abruptly. Chances were that had I gunned it I might have ended up hitting the Prius’ left side and flying off my motorcycle. So in my mind I think I did the right thing. What would have happened if I sped up we’d never know. I am just happy that everything is fine. And now I am surfing the web looking for the Prius haters forums and blogs. May be they’d want to exchange links or something :).

P.S. Just a quick note to conclude the subject - it was my first close call and it came from a Prius. I believe I can rest my Prius case.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 10:20 pm and is filed under Motorcycles, Street, Auto, Cars, Riding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.